Río de la Plata

As Río de la Plata ( Silver River for Spanish) is the common 290 km long and up referred to 220 km wide estuary of the great South American streams Paraná and Uruguay.

The water of the Río de la Plata is cloudy due to the high entry of clayey mud. From the air you can see how slowly mixed the ocher-colored waters of Uruguay with the red-brown waters of the Paraná. The area has only small depths, generally less than 20 m, so that ships with deeper draft, trigger the Buenos Aires, have to use dredged shipping channels.

The region of the Río de la Plata is very densely populated. The Argentine capital, Buenos Aires ( about 3 million inhabitants, Province of Buenos Aires around 12 million inhabitants), on the southern shore and the Uruguayan capital Montevideo (nearly 1.4 million inhabitants, 2 million in the metropolitan area) on the northern shore are the largest cities on the Río de la Plata.

Naming

The name was given this estuary probably the fact that the silver deposits were shipped from Potosí in Bolivia today about him. Sucre, the official capital of Bolivia, was then called Charcas, but was also called La Plata.

Other sources believe that the name comes from the fact that in this region first significant silver deposits were suspected. The assumption was based probably on the fact that the explorers who suffered along with Juan Díaz de Solís in 1516 at the mouth of the Río de la Plata shipwreck, were presented by the resident Indians with silver jewelry. Among the little later erupting in this area conquerors, the spread of a Sierra Mar de la Plata, a mountain with a rich silver deposits. As it turned out later, the guess was wrong.

Another explanation why the river may have received its name, is related to the color. On bright, sunny days the glistening surface of the water looks as if it was made ​​of pure silver.

History

1888 occurred in the area of ​​the Río de la Plata, an earthquake. At the beginning of the Second World War, the so-called Battle of the Río de la Plata between the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee and Allied ( British ) units took place at the mouth of the Río de la Plata.

Environment

Among the in the shallow water zone / in the upper reaches ( Zona Baja ) of the Río de la Plata located fish species Dorado, Surubí, Boga, Pejerrey, Salmón, Tararira, Pacú, anchoita, Lisa, Lenguado and Corvina belong while in the middle and upper zone ( Zona Media / Zona Alta) Sargo, Anchoa, Rubio, Pámpano, Lenguado, Bonito, Palometa, Congrio, Brótola, pescadilla, corvina negra, Pejerrey, Camarón or Langostino and Chucho are to be found.